Practice
by Mordred LeFay
Summary: Crack, one shot, lemony. "I'm trying to help you. You won't ask Naoto out until you have some confidence, and you won't be confident until you know what you're doing." KanjiRise


**A/N: This is a cracky, somewhat lemony fluff. Did I shove enough fanfic terms in there? ;p Anyway, inspired by my current Kanji obsession, Rise's perky helpfulness in some other fics I've read, and a very lemony and (of course) unrealistic depiction of Shikamaru and Temari's (from Naruto) first time. It made me think of idealized vs. realistic first sexual experiences. So it's kind of friendship/romance/humor. I knocked it out over a couple days. I'm not completely satisfied with it and actually wavered on posting it. So let me know what you think and give me suggestions. It's meant to be a one-shot, btw.**

"Well, _that_ was disappointingly short," Rise said, reaching down to pick her panties up off the floor next to Kanji's bed.

Kanji flushed crimson. "S-sorry. it ain't like I've done this before," he stammered, yanking at the condom that seemed like it didn't want to come off. "I thought these things were supposed to cut down the sensation. I always hear dudes bitching about it."

Rise batted his hands away and took over. "Don't just turn it inside out or you'll spill," she said. Kanji took it from her and buried it as far into the trash as he could.

"You ain't, like… bleeding on my sheets are you?"

Rise rolled her eyes. "Most people actually don't bleed their first time, you know. You've been reading too many romance novels."

"N-no way! I ain't into that shit!" he protested, still red as he thought of all the books on his mom's shelf, their pages with the tiniest corner dog-eared for later perusal.

Rise pulled her panties on and looked for wherever they'd flung her bra. "All that 'maidenhead' nonsense too. I use tampons, you know. I probably broke through it years ago."

Kanji looked for his boxers. "So did you like it at all?"

"It was all right," Rise said as she poked his slowly wilting manhood, making him jump. "I didn't say that _this_ was too short. We'll just have to work on your endurance."

"But, like, I didn't hurt ya, did I? You were wincing."

Rise shrugged as she hooked her bra behind her back. "Just have to get used to it. Go slower, use more lube. Don't worry, Kanji-kun, we'll nail this."

Kanji nodded, pulling his pants up. "Sorry I didn't, you know, make you—" he broke off and muttered, "guess we shoulda stuck to dry-humping." That had worked really well, aside from the bruising and chafing.

It had started out with a conversation, Rise teasing Kanji about his utter cowardice when it came to telling Naoto how he felt. "Just kiss her, doofus!" Rise had said.

"I never kissed anyone before. What if I suck at it?"

"I'm sure you won't suck at it. It's a natural thing."

"Were you good right away?"

This made the usually bubbly Rise as fidgety and quiet as him. "Actually I, um…"

"No way, you've never kissed anyone? How's that possible? You're Risette—"

"Have you seen me kiss anyone in my music videos?" Rise challenged.

Kanji scratched the back of his neck. "I ain't ever seen your videos." It was part of why they were best friends; he'd never been a Risette fan and so was immune to the star-struck behavior almost everyone else fell into around her. He was pretty much the one person Rise could trust wasn't around her hoping some of the fame would rub off. "I thought at least for sure you'dve kissed Souji-senpai by now." Rise had been flinging herself at the transfer student almost as soon as she met him. Surely one of those flying hugs had resulted in something.

"Just on the cheek, maybe once or twice."

Kanji groaned and leaned back against the fence. "I ain't even done that."

Rise giggled, "You mean kissing Souji-senpai on the cheek?"

Kanji glared at her and she giggled harder. "I ain't g—" Rise's lips were against his. Kanji was glad he had a fence post to his back or he would've fallen backward and rolled down the hill. What the hell? Why was Rise… did she…?

She broke it off. "Kanji," she scolded, "you have to move your lips at least a little. It's like kissing the CPR dummy."

"You've kissed the CP—mphfm!" She kissed him again, hard, then softer. "Relax, dummy," she whispered against his lips. "Imagine my lips melting into yours. Think squishy." Squishy, huh? Well, something was getting a lot less squishy by the minute. He opened his mouth.

Rise pulled back. "Closed-mouth for now. You have to nail the basics first before you move up to tougher stuff."

Kanji's jaw sagged. His eyebrows knit. "What the hell are ya-?"

"I'm trying to help you. You won't ask Naoto out until you have some confidence, and you won't be confident until you know what you're doing."

"Y-you don't know what you're doing either!"

"And yet I know more than you, obviously." She put her hands on her hips. "Look, just because I never did this stuff doesn't mean I haven't read up, or seen it, or heard about it. The music industry is full of opportunities, it's just my manager's always steered me clear because he wants me to stay squeaky-clean." Rise rolled her eyes. "So do you want my help or not?"

"I-I dunno." Kanji scratched the back of his head.

"Your mom already thinks we're dating," Rise pointed out. Yeah, it was true, Ma had assumed and hadn't listened to any of Kanji's protests that they were just studying up there. One day he had come home from school and she pulled him aside, pressed a deluxe-count box of condoms into his hands and muttered, "Just be discreet, okay?"

"I just feel weird about it, s'all."

"That's not all you feel about it," Rise said, raising her eyebrow and looking down at the noticeable bulge in his pants. Kanji blushed and folded his hands in his lap. "Come on. I like it, you obviously like it, and when you're ready to kiss Naoto-kun, she'll be so impressed that there's no way she'll say no to dating you."

"But you've been going for Souji—"

"And he'll never find out, if we don't tell anyone. It'll be our secret study sessions." She kissed the corner of his mouth and he felt the throbbing speed up. "More fun than studying math and history."

No disagreement there, he thought as Rise linked her fingers behind his neck.

It was just supposed to be kissing, but once they got started, it was hard to stop, and Rise justified it as more advanced training. "Well, eventually you'll get past kissing," she reasoned, "and to hear a lot of the girls talk, being Mr. Fumblehands is a turn off too."

This was where he proved himself a prodigy. Hands as big as his should've been clumsy, but years of sewing and other crafting made them nimble. They sped through heavy petting and slowed down at oral sex. That was a stumbling block for both of them, until Rise got the idea to add food to the equation. It turned out that licking and sucking honey off each other made the awkward more natural. "Kanji-kun, you're getting good at this," Rise gasped. "Try fingering me while you do that." He slipped a finger into her (two was pushing it, considering how tiny she was and how big his hands were) and rubbed the various squishy bumps inside. Her breathing got faster; he looked up to see her twisting her nipples between her fingers. After a few minutes of breathy moans she jerked as if hit with an electric shock.

"Oh wow," she said, going limp. "I think you made me come. Gold star for today."

"You _think_? Don't you know?"

"Never happened before."

"Never?" He reached for a tissue to wipe his hand. "Not even when you're, uh, that is, don't girls-?" He had no idea if girls masturbated. He figured they probably did, but any girl would probably deny it. Rise only blushed and didn't answer.

Doing the same to him was an arduous process. "What am I doing wrong?" Rise pouted, coming up for air and working her jaw around.

"Nothing," he said. It felt good, really good, indescribably good but it just went on and on without peaking. Rise rolled her neck, massaged her jaw and went down for more. She used her hands, her tongue, shoved him in as far as she could without choking. Still she gave out before he did.

The time she finally managed it, she gagged and coughed out his load back onto him. "Oh my god, I'm sorry," Kanji said as he shuddered through the aftermath. Rise dove for the glass of water on his bedside table and guzzled it all. She still grimaced afterward.

"That bad, huh?"

"It hit the back of my throat, I think," she said hoarsely. "It's like all gummy and stuck like phlegm or something." She swallowed hard. "Ugh! It's like," she smacked her lips, her face screwed up as she tried to think of a comparison, "like salty and sour and bitter all at once. But I can only taste it like in the back of my throat, like an aftertaste." She shuddered.

Kanji hung his head. "You don't have to do it again, you know."

"No, I have to get good at this. I want to impress Souji, if we ever get this far," Rise said, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand.

Sometimes Kanji forgot they were doing this to get good for other people. Hell, he didn't even get nervous when he talked to Naoto anymore, which should have meant he was ready to ask her out with no fear. He hadn't thought about her for a while now, his thoughts on what he'd do to Rise after school, what she'd do to him. Now when she mentioned doing any of this stuff to Souji, he felt like someone was stabbing needles into his chest.

That's when he started to wonder if they were in big trouble. This was never supposed to be personal, though now he realized it was ridiculous to make someone come and not expect it to get personal, especially if that someone was a good friend. But he didn't want to say anything. If Rise realized how he was starting to feel about her, she'd back off.

They kept going, going back to clothes on, dry humping, then clothes off again with Rise rubbing the lips of her pussy up and down his shaft. From that it was a short hop from outercourse to intercourse, where they were now.

Rise was pulling up her skirt when Kanji grabbed her hand. "Hey, least I could do is get you off too, huh?"

She smiled at him sweetly and kissed him on the nose. "I appreciate it, but I have to get going. I have a date with Souji."

Kanji held his breath against that stabbing feeling again. "Oh."

"Hey, don't feel bad," she said brightly, misreading his expression. "There's always tomorrow." She looked in his mirror and straightened out her blouse, finger-combed her hair. "If I didn't have to go home and change…"

Right, and shower probably too, to get his smell off her before meeting Senpai. Kanji forced a smile. "Right, might not need it, huh?"

Rise put her hands on her hips. "What kind of girl do you think I am, Kanji? It's our first date."

What kind of girl? The kind of girl who he was plowing a few minutes ago. "Right," he said, "s-sorry. I didn't mean—"

"I forgive you," she said. "See you tomorrow!"

"Yeah. Have fun," he said. She skipped out his door and trotted down the stairs. Kanji heard her call goodbye to his mother, and then the jangle of the bell over the shop door.

He lay back on the bed in his shorts and tried to process it. He'd just lost his virginity, to Rise. It wasn't like he imagined it. He imagined romance, and that it'd be perfect, that he'd last more than a couple minutes. And he'd always imagined it with Naoto.

"What the hell did we do?" he asked the ceiling, and rubbed his hands over his face before letting his arms flop down above his head.

And she was going out with Souji. He hadn't even asked where. A movie, maybe, or dinner. Would they kiss? More than kiss? Jealousy burned up his throat like the girls' bad cooking repeating on him. Would she use all those tricks they had discovered and tested on each other?

He heaved himself up off the bed, put the rest of his clothes on, and went over to his sewing table to work on his latest project. It had been gathering dust ever since this little whatever-it-was of their started. He needed something to distract him.

"Think of something to distract you," Rise said, the next day, her words coming out in grunts as his weight pressed the breath from her. She made him go agonizingly slow, working his way in deeper gradually.

Kanji hadn't asked about the date, but she seemed like she was in a good mood so he figured it went well. He tried to pretend nothing was wrong, but when Souji asked if he wanted to hang out after school, he'd snapped and said he already had plans. _Fucking your girlfriend_, he added to himself with a smug smirk as he walked away from his puzzled senpai.

Why the hell should he be jealous? Senpai should be the jealous one. No doubt he thought Rise was saving herself up for him. Man would he get a nasty surprise.

"Ouch, jeez, not so rough," Rise complained.

"Sorry," he said. "You wanna be on top? Then you can control it, maybe."

Rise shrugged. "It's worth a try. Roll us over." It was tough going; he didn't know where to put his legs, and he ended up slipping out of her somewhere mid-roll.

Rise tried to mount him, but he was going soft. "Damnit," she muttered, batting at his penis like a cat with a dying mouse.

She managed to get him up again and slid him in, slowly settling onto his hips. She braced her hands on his chest and started rocking, sliding her hips up and down. It didn't really feel like much; she was barely moving, it seemed. He was going soft again. Rise made a noise of annoyance as she got off him.

"I-I'm sorry, it just… doesn't do much that way," he stammered.

"I wasn't feeling it either," she said, but she sounded disappointed.

He thought for sure that would be the end of it, but Rise was determined. They tried all sorts of positions (the one he liked the most, doggie-style, was the one she hated because he thrust in too deep and bashed her cervix uncomfortably). He could get off in most of them. She didn't at all, even when she rubbed her clit as they did it.

"There has to be some reason girls like sex," she wailed after another failed attempt.

Kanji stuffed another condom underneath piles of scrap fabric in his wastebasket. "Maybe it's better if you actually have feelings for the guy," he said, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "I bet you'll get off the first time you do it with Souji." It didn't make sense to say; if Souji was a virgin, he'd probably last as long as Kanji did his first time.

Rise's mouth hung open. "Kanji-kun, are you jealous?" she gasped.

"No!" he blurted.

"Your face is all red."

"S-so?"

Rise folded her arms. "Let me ask this, then: you ask Naoto out yet?"

"No."

"Why not? I say you're plenty ready."

"How am I plenty ready? I can't even get you off!" he retorted.

Rise rolled her eyes. "Kanji, you probably won't even get that far with Naoto, not for a while anyway. And if you're right about the 'maybe it's better if you love someone' thing then it won't even be a problem."

"How far have you and Senpai gotten?"

It was Rise's turn to blush. "T-that's none of your business!" she sputtered, indignant.

"Come on, Risette, I want to know if you've been putting all this training to good use or not."

"Don't call me Risette!" They glared at each other for a few minutes. Kanji was the one who broke it off. Rise gathered up her clothes and started dressing. "This was a mistake," she said.

"Tell me something I don't know." Then, quieter, Kanji said, hands linked behind his neck, pressing his arms against his head, "We used to be friends."

The way Rise slammed the door behind her, Kanji knew that the lessons, and probably the friendship, were over.

She didn't speak to him for the rest of the week. She threw herself at Souji, hanging around his neck, talking to him in that icky-sweet cutesy voice she used on him. Strangely, Souji seemed more put out by it than anything. Kanji considered asking Naoto to eat lunch with him. He felt like he needed Naoto's no-nonsense company just to keep him from going crazy over this Rise thing. Maybe she would know how to fix this; he didn't need to mention what caused the fight. When saw her walk up to Souji and ask him if he wanted to discuss the ongoing case, Kanji wasn't even upset, just disappointed he'd be eating lunch alone.

Saturday night, after dinner, he was sitting in his room working on a stuffed bunny when his cell phone rang. He didn't even look at the name, just answered it. "Yeah?"

"K-k-anji?" Rise sobbed.

"Rise?" he said. "You okay? What happened?"

"I-I was just at the station shopping, and was going to stop to get some coffee at that little shop there, you know?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, I saw S-souji-senpai there and I was going to go over and say hi and—" her voice was getting squeakier as she went. She took a deep, shaky breath and went on, "Naoto-kun walked up with a couple coffees and sat down with him and, and he took one from her and… _kissed_ her!"

"What? Did he kiss her back?"

"Y-yeah, and she snuggled up in the booth next to him and he put his arm around her and—" She choked off a sob. "Can I come over?"

"Yeah, sure. Where are you?"

"Um, outside the shop, actually. I'll come up."

His mom must have been closing up the shop, because he heard Rise greet her and assure her that she was okay. Her footsteps up the stairs were slow; usually she practically skipped up them. He opened the door before she could knock, let her in, and closed it behind her.

She looked terrible. Her face was all puffy and red, her eyes reddened and leaking tears and mascara down her face.

"Hey," he said softly, "you okay?"

Her face crumpled and she buried her face in his shirt, sobbing loudly against him, her hands clutching the fabric and twisting it all out of shape. He resisted the urge to pry her hands off before she ruined it completely, and put his arms around her instead.

"I'm sorry!" she wailed. "I know I shouldn't be c-crying over him but I really thought he liked me and—"

"I know," Kanji said. "I thought he did too."

After a little while, she pulled back and sat on his bed wearily. "Aren't you upset? I mean, Naoto-kun…" she trailed off.

Kanji sat next to her. "Guess I should be, but no, not really."

Rise gave a weak laugh and leaned on him. "I didn't think you'd ever get over her."

He ran his fingers through one of her pigtails. "Yeah, well, I've had other things on my mind lately."

"Yeah," Rise said softly. "Kanji-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"You're my best friend."

The corners of his mouth lifted just a slight bit. "I know."

"No really. Yukiko and Chie are so close no one can break in, and the other girls at school are jealous of me. The guys all want in my pants or want to fanboy all over me." She hugged his arm. "Not you though."

He snorted. "Well, can't say I don't wanna get in your pants," he said.

Rise laughed and slapped his leg. "You know what I mean. When I first came here. Everyone was all starstruck and you were just like 'psh, whatever'," she said, pitching her voice as low as she could to imitate him. "I couldn't figure out why. I mean, even if you didn't like my music I figured you'd at least think I'm cute. Then I figured oh, it's because he's gay."

Kanji made an irritated noise in his throat. It was still sort of a sore spot with him.

"But then when it turned out Naoto was a girl and you still liked her anyway, I figured I just wasn't your type. I mean, you hung out with me a lot—"

"That ain't my fault. You're hard to get rid of."

Rise stuck her tongue out at him. "I grew on you though."

"Yeah, guess so," he admitted.

They sat there for a while, Rise leaning on Kanji with her arms around his arm. "This is nice," she said.

"Mm."

She tilted her face up to look at him, stretched up, and kissed him for the first time in a week. He didn't realize just how much he'd missed it until now.

"Kanji?"

"Yeah?"

Rise slid her hand up his neck. "Make me forget all about Souji."

His brow furrowed. "I thought you said it was a mistake."

"Yeah, well I think being so crazy obsessed with Souji was the real mistake," she said. "And we never finished your training."

She lay back on the bed. Kanji hesitated. "Rise, I dunno…"

"Kanji," she said sweetly, "get down here."

When they got to the intercourse part again, Kanji hesitated. "You sure?"

"Relax," Rise said, pushing him down on his back and straddling him. "I think I have an idea."

"What's that?"

"Well," she said as she maneuvered him inside. "Remember the dry humping? It put pressure here." She patted the area on and around her clit. "I'm thinking maybe if I lay flat," she lowered herself, "we can get the best of both worlds."

It still didn't feel like much to Kanji, but it wasn't long before Rise was moaning softly, her breath coming fast. "Oh, oh Kanji, I think we're on to something here," she breathed against his ear. "Lick my nipples."

He did her one better and sucked one into his mouth, swirling his tongue around it. "Oh God that's so good, oh, oh uhuh…" Rise rocked her hips faster, bucking against him, then switched to gripping his shoulders and squeezing her legs against his to pull her self up and down so he slid in and out of her further. Her moans hit a peak of urgency and then died down to satisfied sighs. Kanji could feel her muscles twitching around him.

"Did you…?"

"Uh huh." She pulled at him to roll him on top of her. They'd practiced that too until they figured it out. "Now you can finish."

"Oh, is that how it works?" he said, gripping her hips and thrusting into her faster. He was getting harder again, and the feeling was more pleasurable.

"Yeah, I think we solved both our problems."

"Uhuh," he grunted, barely listening. Without having to worry about holding back, he could actually relax and enjoy himself. It felt so much better for some reason; it was like he could feel every tight curve. When she nibbled his ear and squeezed him hard inside, he just let go.

Rise's face was flushed, her chest red where they had rubbed together. She licked her lips and smiled at him, satisfied and proud, as he withdrew. "I think you've graduated," she said, but Kanji was staring down in horror. "Wow, it feels a lot gooier than usual. What—" she tilted her head to the side. "What's wrong?"

Kanji's face was grim. "The condom broke."

"WHAT?"

The relief on Rise's face was reassuring but Kanji still waited until she got to his locker and said, "I got it after lunch."

He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and let his forehead rest against his locker with a thud. "Thank God," he said. He never thought he'd be this happy to hear about a girl getting her period.

"We were lucky. That was the scariest three weeks of my life." She leaned against the lockers next to him. "I'm thinking maybe I should go on the Pill. That is, if we're going to keep this up."

Kanji peeked at her. "Why, you wanna stop?"

"No way! Not now that we've finally gotten it right," she said.

Kanji lifted his head from his locker door and fidgeted. "Well, uh, you wanna make it official?"

Rise looked at him quizzically. "Like what, a press release?"

"Uh, no, I was thinkin' more like…" he hesitated a moment before pulling her to him and kissing her full on the mouth.

Several yards away, the rest of the investigation team froze in their tracks. "Wow," Yosuke said. "I did _not_ see that coming."

"We did," Chie and Yukiko said simultaneously. The rest of the group looked at them. Yukiko shrugged.

Souji and Naoto, who hadn't even held hands at school yet, looked at each other.

More than a few male students cried out in despair.

Souji walked up when they came up for air. "Guys, you okay with going in the TV today?" They let go of each other in a hurry and tried to look casual as if all their friends hadn't watched them kiss for the last few minutes.

"Uh, yeah," Kanji said.

"Yup! Ready to go, Senpai!" Rise said a little too brightly.

"Okay, meet at Junes in an hour," Souji said.

"Right."

Rise and Kanji slowed their steps until the rest of the team was far enough ahead to be out of earshot. "Think we can still make it in time if we stop by my place first?" Kanji asked.

Rise scoffed. "We got this down to a science," she said, tugging him by the hand as she ran for downtown.


End file.
